The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1887-01-29
THE SIGN BEARER.

SANDY was not really his name, OF
course; but when man becomes, in
point Of fact, nothing but peripatetic
sandwich he is apt to grow Indifferent to
small points of etiquette and to the social
exactions that demand prefix to gem
tleman's name when he is addressed
For old Sandy was gentleman in
spite of the fact that there was nothing
visible of him above the sign board, so
to speak, but a pair of dropping shoul-
ders inadequately covered with rusty
tweed coat; weather beaten neck, in
which some of the cords seemed to have
acquired undue prominence by reason of
the heavy boards swung by straps across
his dropping shoulders; careworn face,
forever redeemed from insignifcance by
a pair of mild gray eyes that had caught
a commercial trick of looking very per-
suasively into the face of every passerby,
as he supplemented the big lettered an
nouncements of his boards by fiutter-
ing rose colored leafiet extended in a
tremulous brown hand; thin, wind blown
gray hair and disreputabie hat that ab-
solutely refused to locate itself chrome
logically in the calendar of fashion.
That was the upper man Sandy. Sandy
below the boards was principally notice
able on the occasion in question for a
pair of brand new shoes that apparently
at finding themselves on such feet, with
such absurd aceompaniments as those
immensely ragged trowser ends and
those brilliantly painted rims to Sandy s
sandwich boards, which set forth in the
most positive language the location of
the finest and cheapest shoe backing to
be found in all New York city or per-
haps in the world.
Few, indeed, let them be ever SO punc-
tiliolsly inclined, would have known to
call old Sandy but just that; for it
seemed to go beyond the memory of man
when he had not formed one of a solemn
procession of thin sandwiches, ranging
according to height, tall, taller, tallest,
that plodded patiently up one side Of
Broadway and down the other, proclaim
ing the same excellence of the same shoe
backing with the same patient indiffer-
ence to the changes of the weather as to
the changes in the political horizon;
with the same stolid acceptance of the
jostling that was inevitable when their
unyielding boards came in sharp contact
with the swift rushing tide of humanity
that now swept with them and now
against them.
But hearts must trob, even under the
heasY is.essrre of sandwich boards, and
it - because the front man in the pro-
cesasoa. la.lest, knew that old Sandy S
ha occ.s.:-oa to beat somewhat SORROW
flll1y jt;.i5 then that he turned and asked
hi,.i 4 q ,ession on that bright but blus-
tcz-ing morning, not urgently, only alb
III. PITY for want of time:
'.oss's the Nidge?'
'aTursa
There come moments of relaxation and
refreshment even into sandwiched lives,
and when old Sandy 8 companions broke
ranks on that day to go to lunch he
Sc sarated himself from them and, drop
ping his slow commercial march step,
walked as rapidly as he could for the
rigid impediments on his shoulders east
ward, ever eastward, until he reached
the dreary neighborhood of Hester street,
where he turned abruptly into a door
that stood open and clattered up stairs,
his brand new shoes creaking voeifer-
ously on the bare boards of the steep and
dirty steps, his imprisoning boards
humping on the step above him as he
mounted hastily up two flights and
stopped suddenly at door Immediately
in front of him and knocked twice. The
first knock sounded trifle apologize,
the second trifle impatient; both fail
ing of recognition, he cautiously turned
the handle and peeped into the room.
It was not an interior calculated to fas-
cinate the gaze, nevertheless old Sandy
stood there quite awhile looking in with
out making any motion toward entering.
The room was dark, not for want of
windows, for it boasted of three, but
what with the Opaque newspapers that
| supplied the place of numerous miss
ing panes of glass and the old shawl and
old quilts that had been pinned up as
high as woman's arm could reach to
keep the wind at bay, and the unwashed
condition Of the upper sash, the refec-
ton of the bright sunlight that was
flooding the streets old Sandy had Just
left was reduced to its minimum. Such
sunshine, however, as did penetrate into
the dingy room fell direct upon three
cages full of canary birds that swung
high up against the unwashed upper
sash, and when Sandy opened the door
they were rejoicing in it with an exuber-
ance of vocal content that seemed almost
insolent in its contrast with the sadness
and stiffness of their surroundings.
AS Sandy's eyes got used to the OBJ
security they became conscious of an
other pair Of eyes fastened on his own
with sort of imploring intensity.
They looked immensely large, staring at
him there from the cradle in front Of the
sullen stove, but perhaps it was because
they were set il such an exceedingly
small face from which all the flesh
seemed to have worn away. leaving the